6 Book Reviews submitted by our Members...sorted by voted most helpful

I've been reading true crime novels since I was in my early teens, and this is the first one that ever prompted me to lock the doors to my house when I finally finished it late one night.

What makes this such a powerful book is that the author doesn't sensationalize or over dramatize the story behind these two killers like some authors due (Like Ann Rule, who could start her own Harlequin Romance True Crime spin off series), but pro trays it in the overly plain and mundane way in which these brutal sex torture killers operated. He also doesn't sooth the reader with assurances about the great Boys in Blue being our only saviors from such evil people, but portrays them as the overworked and self-concerned government workers that don't even bother trying to solve the string of young poor white trash girl murders until the husband and wife team accidentally kill the son and daughter of wealthy families with enough influence to whip things into action.

This is an extremely dark and scary book. Not only because these people actually existed and carried out these crimes, but because the only thing that stopped them was their own incompetence.

True Crime story. In 1978 Gerald Gallego and his common-law wife Charlene began a three-year spree of kidnapping, rape and murder in California and Nevada. Eventually they took 10 lives. Former L.A. policeman-lawyer-judge van Hoffmann presents in-depth portraits of this oddly matched pair, he a sociopath raised in the streets, his father executed for murder, and she an indulged, extremely intelligent daughter of upper-middle class parents, a bisexual passive in her dealings with men and aggressive with women. The couple, we're told, could not achieve sexual satisfaction without raping, then killing young girls whom they called their "love slaves." After their capture Charlene turned state's evidence. Gerald is now awaiting execution, while his wife is serving a 16-year sentence. Both are imprisoned at San Quentin in California. The story of these serial killers makes for intriguing, if horrifying, reading.